There was little question that THE ODYSSEY was going to win the weekend and own cultural zeitgeist; indeed, the NBC Universal car wash both physical and digital has been relentlessly promoting for weeks and, thankfully, Christopher Nolan seemed to appear in articles and sound bites more often than almost anyone else in the world–yes, even him.
Still, in a world and time when flat is the new up, overachieving expectations as grandoise as those it was already ascribed made the news that DEADLINE’s Anthony D’Alessandro reported on yesterday that much satisfying. His slow drip started mid-morning yesterday with this:
Universal‘s Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey had a great hold on Saturday of $41.66M -17% off Friday/previews taking its overall weekend to $124.5M, which breaks a slew of records we’ve been telling you about over the weekend including the best domestic start YTD for a movie, the best ever opening for Matt Damon, record opening for a Universal R-rated movie, Nolan’s third best debut, as well as now the fourth best R-rated opening after Deadpool & Wolverine ($211.4M), Deadpool ($132.4M), and Deadpool 2 ($125.5M).
Mere minutes later D’Alessandro underscored this by providing the global versions of these KPIs:
Odysseus’ boatload of cash from his global voyage just got bigger with Universal‘s Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey raking in $264.1M worldwide, again a record start for the director ahead of Dark Knight Rises ($249M WW).
The foreign start of $139.6M is also the director’s biggest international opening ever ahead of Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight Rises in like-for-like markets. The Odyssey bowed in 73 territories, 12,700 locations and 25,600 screens. Still the second best star for a R-rated movie abroad after Deadpool & Wolverine. In addition it’s Universal’s biggest opening ever in 11 markets and Nolan’s biggest in 48 countries including France, Italy, India, Spain, Brazil, Netherlands and Poland.
And as mid-afternoon rolled around THE ANKLER’s Sean McNulty dried himself off enough to supply these additional bullet points to his ever-anticipated WAKEUP newsletter:
- Above and beyond expectations here for UNI, and about 47% bigger than the Oppenheimer global opening.
- NOTE: The average ticket prices were notably larger for Odyssey vs. Oppenheimer’s in 2023:
- General: $15.32 vs. $13.44
- PLF: $19.07 vs. $16.64
- 70MM: $22.46 vs. $17.03 (this was 7% of the total U.S. take)
- BUT: The Odyssey still also sold notably more tix in the U.S., according to ENTELLIGENCE: 7.5M vs. 5.9M.
- NOTE: The average ticket prices were notably larger for Odyssey vs. Oppenheimer’s in 2023:
- OPENING NIGHT DEMOS:
- 50% White, 24% Latino, 12% Black, and 9% Asian
- 56% men / 44% women
- Pretty even age split at 55% under-35 . . . and considering this is an R-rated movie, that’s a pretty nice 18-34 concentration.
D’Alessandro even went an extra step to provide qualitative support to nip any sort of potential pushback in the bud:
Note, while there was some anti-woke sentiment seen in the social media per RelishMix, the success of The Odyssey this weekend isn’t purely built on a digitally crazed audience. Rather a Nolan movie brings out the non-frequent moviegoer, read 43% of the audience only head to the movies every few months or so, or even a few times a year according to PostTrak exits. Not to mention, it’s clear that anti-woke noise didn’t slow ticket sales one iota.
And as McNulty rightfully chided, it’s all been teed up for Nolan et al to have a run-it-back moment at proportions only seen by the likes of OBSESSION–at a far bigger scale, of course:
- Hollywood is basically throwing up its hands next weekend with no new wide studio releases — was there no female-skewing, non-IMAX pic to counter-program and try to continue momentum vs. taking the
approach? - I know Spidey is up the weekend after that, but taking a weekend off in the middle of your biggest selling season — where your core demo has the most free time — just seems like a missed distribution opportunity(.)
Especially when you also factor in that the kind of competition they had from something else epic that unfolded yesterday afternoon will be an unfortunately dim memory by then. YAHOO! SPORTS’ Kendall Baker recapped that in his morning newsletter:
|
In a World Cup celebrated for its rampant goalscoring, defense had the tournament’s last and loudest laugh. Spain, football’s immovable object, emerged victorious in extra time over an Argentina side whose magic was nowhere to be found, sending La Roja to their second World Cup title…As they’ve done all summer long, Spain defanged Argentina’s attack, holding La Albiceleste without a shot in 90 minutes of regular time — a first in World Cup Final history. Despite that futile offense, goalkeeper Emi Martínez kept Argentina’s hopes alive with a record 11-save performance. |
|
|
Big picture: La Roja haven’t just become the latest World Cup champion; they’ve also extended their unbeaten run to 38 matches, the longest streak in men’s international football history. Add in their wire-to-wire dominance these last five weeks, when they conceded just one goal in the entire tournament, and we’re talking about an all-time great dynasty that may not end any time soon given the players who are powering it.
|
As FRONT OFFICE SPORTS’ Margaret Fleming chronicled for her AM inbox stuffer, the winners and big bucks hauls weren’t limited strictly to Nolan y La Roja:
FIFA wanted a big finish, and it got one. Soccer’s global governing body created a massive spectacle for its World Cup final. FIFA staged an extensive pre-match closing ceremony, a star-studded halftime show, and a glitzy post-match presentation featuring U.S. President Donald Trump crashing the trophy lift. On the pitch, Spain defeated Argentina 1–0 in an extra-time thriller.
The July 19 match marked the end of FIFA’s biggest World Cup ever. The tournament featured 48 teams in 104 matches across 16 host cities, and distributed $655 million in prize money, 50% more than in 2022. FIFA predicted it would make $11 billion in revenue, but that number will be closer to $15 billion, according to The Guardian.
I choose to savor these kinds of images that reinforce the age-old parable of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. 
But judging by the amount of both mocking and reverent sharing of this one, my belief that THE ODYSSEY will arguably be even more sought after this coming weekend versus the one just concluded is that much stronger. 
Failures can be epic, too.
Until next time…